CDC head: No plans to scrap Clark advisory council

CLARK FREEPORT, Pampanga, Philippines – Clark Development Corp. (CDC) president and chief executive officer Arthur Tugade said yesterday he has no plans to abolish the Metro Clark Advisory Council (MCAC), which serves as the state-run firm’s link to communities around the freeport.  

“That has not even crossed my mind,” Tugade said in a text message to The STAR when asked whether the MCAC was headed for abolition.

The MCAC is composed of mayors of Angeles City and other towns in Pampanga and Tarlac bordering this freeport.

Through the MCAC, the mayors are able to express to the CDC various Clark-related concerns of their constituents during supposed monthly meetings.

Before it became inactive last June, MCAC members raised the issue of Aeta rights in the Clark area, and the threat of flooding in parts of Mabalacat City from water flowing from the freeport during heavy rains.

The appointments of the mayors’ representatives to the council were supposed to have been renewed and take effect last July, but as of yesterday or almost half a year, no appointments have been made and no MCAC meeting has been held.

In a phone interview, Tugade, however, blamed the ban on appointments on the midterm elections last May and the recent barangay polls.

But he gave assurance that the appointments would be out in two weeks at most. A CDC source, however, said red tape in the state-run firm’s legal department also contributed to the delay.

The MCAC was formed soon after the creation of the CDC when the US Air Force abandoned Clark in 1991. The council was created based on the provisions of Republic Act 7227 of 1992 or the law accelerating the conversion of military reservations into other productive uses, creating the Bases Conversion and Development Authority (BCDA) for this purpose and providing funds thereof and for other purposes.

Specifically, the creation of MCAC was in accordance with the law’s provision that it is the declared policy of the government “to enhance the benefits” to be derived from these properties “to promote the economic and social development of Central Luzon in particular and the country in general.”

The premise was that the CDC, the implementing arm of the BCDA at Clark, would not be able to genuinely promote the welfare of Central Luzon, particularly the communities around the freeport, without any linkages with the local government units.